Silver Solidarity

Updated Sept. 1, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

In an otherwise terrible week, it doesn't hurt to be reminded of human bravery and triumph. Twenty-five years ago this month, the Solidarity movement in Poland was born, marking what we now know was the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.

At 6 a.m., on August 14 of that year, three workers at Gdansk's Lenin Shipyard declared a strike. Within hours, thousands of others had joined their sit-in. By 11 that morning, Lech Walesa, a...